First published in 1953, The Night of the Hunter was made into a haunting film the following year scripted by James Agee, directed by Charles Laughton and starring Robert Mitchum in one of his finest screen roles. Set during the rural Depression era in America's South, the original novel well rewards reading. It is a Gothic tale, a kind of downbeat To Kill a Mockingbird, with two young children, John and Pearl, being tormented by The Preacher, an evil, black-clad figure with the words "Love" and "Hate" tattooed on his knuckles. The children's father has been hanged for a bank robbery killing, but the whereabouts of the $10,000 he stole remains a mystery. It is this money that the villain is after and when the children's mother, Willa, gets in his way, he has no hesitation in killing her. Like the progression of a nightmare, the narrative unfolds in stops and starts, the whole thing, even after all these years, still retaining its power to shock.